Study Finds Nearly Half in U.S. Do Not Read Books

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According to a new study commissioned by the book industry, nearly half of the American people never read book — in hardcover or paperback. About 39 percent of the population over the age of 16 read only newspapers or magazines. And about 6 percent — if not more, were tney willing to acinut — neverread anything at all.

That quixotic individual, the American book reader, is having his head and pulse felt by the new medicine men of commerce and culture, the market researchers. in an attempt to discover answers to questions that elude publishers. editors and authors season after season: What do you read, when do you read, and why do you read?

A survey. just completed by Yankelovich. Skelly & White, the research firm, and sponsored by the Book Industry Study Group, a nonprofit organization, is now being studied in major American publishing houses. It based on interviews with 1,450 Americans over the age of 16.

The findings appear in a 333‐page report titled “The 1978 Consumer Research Study on Reading and Book Purchasing.” Without illustrations but with many charts, it probably carries the highest price tag ever put on trade paperback: it was $1,000 if it was ordered before Nov. 9 and $1,500 a copy now.

‘¶The most popular fiction categories are action and adventure stories, plus historical novels, mysteries, short stories, modern dramatic novels and romances.

¶Book readers are likely to be women, white, well‐educated, affluent and under 50 years of age; nonreaders tend to be older, not well educated and nonwhite. it In selecting books, readers look for subject areas and authors, and buy on personal recommendation, book cover information and browsing.

¶The “typical” reader of books has read eight books in the last half‐year and has spent Sl8 for them. While the vast majority purchase paperbacks. nearly half of the paperback readers also buy hardcover books.

¶One out of five book readers is member of book clubs and acquires about a book a month; one‐fourth of book readers are students who buy combination of new and used books; two out of five readers buy books they don't read, but plan to do so later.

¶Half of the population of the United States has been inside a bookstore in the last six months — but non‐bookreaders and nonreaders also visit bookstores. All of these groups have “highly favorable” attitude toward bookstores.

A panel discussion held at the McGraw‐Hill auditorium in New York on Thursday attended by several hundred members of the book industry also brought out the fact that there were great opportunities in reaching individuals who stopped. reading books altogether when they leave high school. Because half the American people borrow books from public and school libraries, government funding is deemed essential to the health of the book industry.

Martin P. Levin, president of Times Mirror Book Group and one of the moving spirits behind the study, said that the information contained in the report was well worth the cost to the publishing trade because it could help to create more readers in the future.

‘Got Rid of Several Myths’

“We got rid of several myths,” Mr. Levin said. “First, that people who watch riV are inhibited from reading; second, that leisure time for other activities is so overwhelming that people have no time left over for books when the fact is that the busiest people do read; third, that books are too often sold like medicine instead of remembering that the pleasure principle still the most important factor.”

Yet he and other publishers said they recognized that the author and the book were still at the heart of publishing and that the process of creating books was an art form that could not be projected from a sample into a national consensus without doing violence to the integrity of hooks.

A version of this archives appears in print on November 14, 1978, on Page C13 of the New York edition with the headline: Study Finds Nearly Half in U.S. Do Not Read Books. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe